To easily set an optimum separating condition and to promptly correspond to the change of a content of a conductor in a separating device by mounting at least one conductor detecting unit on a conductor recovering unit for recovering conductors, which is separated by a separating unit.

A conductor detecting unit 61, 21 and 31 are mounted on a part near to a top end of a supplying unit 4, a bottom part of a conductor recovering unit 2 and a bottom part of an insulator recovering unit 3 respectively. The conductor detecting unit 21, 31 and 61 are constituted respectively of a coil, a device for measuring inductance of the coil, a data base wherein correlation of quantity of the conductor passed to the coil with the change of the inductance is stored and a calculating device for calculating the quantity of the conductor comparing the data base and the measured value of the inductance of the coil. Thereby, each quantity of the conductor in the supplying unit 4, the conductor recovering unit 2 and the insulator recovering unit 3 is promptly grasped.